What he loved and what he could do well

 

My aunty from Hong Kong just texted me the sad news of my uncle's passing away from cancer at 90. He was a designer and spent his retirement years engaging in artistic pursuits including painting, photography, making video, writing poetry and calligraphy.

In addition to the usual condolence messages I added in my simplistic Chinese:

三叔生前很爱艺术。过着有趣的生活。应该死而无憾☘️

My aunty replied:

是的，他很亨受生活，他說這一生都无憾了

Reflecting on her words I can recall how his eyes would sparkle when relating his passionate pursuits. He strikes me as someone who was fully engaged with whatever he was doing.

It must have been fiery passion that drove him to uproot from Singapore to pursue college education in China in the 1950s to realise his ideals that Communism was the best political system for mankind. Towards the end of the Cultural Revolution realising how the system had fallen short of his 'utopian dream' he managed to leave for Hong Kong setting up from scratch his design shop starting with logo and labels before moving on to bigger things.

When relating his life history however he spoke not of regrets but only of experiences. He strikes me as someone who looked forward all the time, took things in his stride and followed his heart to maximise life. 

On a telephone call when my aunty was describing his health condition detailing the physical care she was rendering, he chipped in to say cheekily 我有个好老婆

When I read my aunty's words "他很亨受生活，他說這一生都无憾了" a word crossed my mind -"Ikigai". 

The following is the definition:

'Ikigai is a Japanese concept that means your ‘reason for being.’ ‘Iki’ in Japanese means ‘life,’ and ‘gai’ describes value or worth. Your ikigai is your life purpose or your bliss. It’s what brings you joy and inspires you to get out of bed every day'.

三叔 knew indeed what he loved and what he could do well.